woven experiments

Well, this week was it's usual juggle between kids and studio and house. Sometimes it works against my creativity and other times it helps me get inspired. I find interruptions so frustrating when I am being creative, but then again it stops me obsessing over one particular thing and doing something totally different. In turn, my mind gets refreshed and I come back to my projects with fresh ideas.

I have been attempting some new weaves after a long process of putting my loom together (it has been in storage for 8 years!) and am planning a bag range to be introduced...

Weaving is a love hate thing with me - it is very technical and not for the fainthearted - especially when you're dealing with this big brute..Thankfully my husband is a carpenter - had it not been for is understanding of wood structures I think it could have ended up on a bonfire! He has dismantled and put it together (too) many times and there has been many a muttered grumble whenever the word 'loom 'has been mentioned. I say in jest ' you'll eat your words one day!..(I've insisted on keeping it until the day I could afford the space and time to concentrate on it and make it pay it's way -)Now that it is functioning as it should I find myself getting very excited about experimenting with different yarns and unusual textures.

In my art school days I would spend many a frustrated moment using very beautiful and impratically fine silks which would snap all the time, ruin my weaves and reduce me to tears! I made life extremely difficult for my loom and myself. However I did persevere enough to create some pretty fabrics. Weaving fine fabric is sooooo time consuming and now I really have to change my style of working to weave faster in order to make it work commercially...